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A little Norfolk Holiday

At the weekend we took our little family on a short little Norfolk holiday. Our last little holiday as a family of 3 before baby arrives! We looked at a variety of places to go but it was all last minute (as we wanted to see how I and my pelvis were faring before we booked anything) and didn’t want to go too far from home as long car journies aren’t great fun in late pregnancy.

We considered going to Butlins as then there would be no cooking involved, but even on offer we thought the food packages were quite pricey and honestly we weren’t convinced about the quality of the accommodation. I don’t mean that to sound snobbish but we wanted to be comfortable. With Hubby being as tall as he is (6’2″) we really need a king size bed, especially now I am the size that I am too! But we also wanted it to be a good bed. We stayed at a Premier Inn when we went to a wedding recently and honestly had such a rubbish nights sleep as the King Size bed there was basically solid as a rock. We wanted this to be a lovely relaxed holiday and so wanted to find somewhere offering comfort.

(I’m sure there would be other benefits to going to Butlins such as the other things included, but with Monkey the age he is I am not sure how much use he would have got out of the other activities on offer, he is generally happy as long as he can have a run around somewhere!)

After a bit of a search we came across Poppyland Holiday Cottages. They have a number of holiday cottages to rent in Norfolk and they had availability at Rectory Cottage in Overstrand, just south of Cromer on the Norfolk coast. We felt that with doing breakfasts ourself and eating out all of the other meals it would still cost around the same as a Butlins trip, and we would hopefully have more spacious and more comfy accommodation.

We were not disappointed!

The cottage was gorgeous and the lovely king size bed was perfect, not too soft, not too firm… just lovely really. I even slept better on that bed than I have at home on our lovely bed recently, it was wonderful.

There was lots of little touches that welcomed us to the cottage including milk in the fridge, a bottle of wine, tea bags, yummy chocolate biscuits and fresh flowers. They were very family friendly too, and, knowing we had a 2 year old with us, they kindly provided a lovely box of toys for Monkey (you may see in some of the pictures that Monkey very quickly aquainted himself with the toys!) and a baby monitor. They also have a travel cot, high chair and stairgates available if you need them. Very reassuring when you have little ones and lovely not to need to pack everything.

Overstrand village was a very sweet little village and we were walking distance from the beach (even for me!) which was lovely – although the tides were not in our favour much this week and generally low tide was in the afternoon during Monkey’s naps. We still managed to get some good beach fun in the evenings though and the weather was very good to us.

We spent some time at Cromer and nearby Sheringham and in general had a lovely relaxed weekend together. Sadly Monkey came down with a cold on the Saturday so we did have some wonderful grumpy meltdowns in restaurants which as a parent always make you feel wonderful. We let him have ice cream for lunch on Saturday as he seemed to have a sore throat and it was the only thing that cheered him up – but oh my you should have seen the judgement and disapproving looks coming from other people in the cafe. We weren’t too concerned and chuckled if anything, but I do wish people would mind their own!

We did lots of holiday things – played on the beach, walked the promenade and went on Cromer Pier. We played with stones on Sheringham beach and ate lots of Ice Cream! We went in the penny arcades where Monkey proved to be hugely skilful at one of the games and won enough tickets to get himself a cool glider aeroplane. He was very pleased with this and we were quite impressed by his skill/fluke! We treated ourselves to some lovely meals out, including a yummy fry up breakfast at the local cliff top cafe in Overstrand one morning.

A couple of more detailed posts about specific places to follow, but here are a few of our fave shots of what was a lovely and relaxed few days away, at a gorgeous holiday cottage! It was a lovely little cottage in a great spot and we will definitely look to go back at some point when no.2 is here!

Gorgeous photos Caroline – it looks like such a pretty place! I can’t believe that you are nearly ready to welcome your new little bundle. It seems like yesterday that you announced that you were expecting! Much love and luck in the coming weeks-i’m excited to hear your news xxx

Ah we stayed in a Poppyland Cottage in Overstrand in June and it was indeed a lovely place and you’re right on that it must work out the cheapest and most comfortable option for families with small children. We really liked the feel of Overstrand but we did quite a few day trips around the area too. Sheringham is lovely! Xx

Oh small world Sam! I remember you saying how lovely your holiday cottage was too, but didn’t realise it was a poppyland one too (or I forgot, which wouldn’t surprise me these days!). Lovely little place and lots of places to visit nearby too xx

Sounds wonderful! My husband and I used to love visiting Norfolk, it was somewhere we spent lovely weekends (near Sheringham!) before we had children Glad you managed to get in a last break before baby arrives x #allaboutyou

Lucas says – This sounds like an AWESOME holiday and I am not surprised with Monkey’s skill at winning things. He’s such a cool dude, it’ll come naturally to him – like me he he. Glad you all had a cool holiday #MMWBH

We love these types of holidays. We stayed in a gorgeous cottage near Tenby a few years ago and it was great. Ash even got his sea legs by taking the boat with us across to Caldy Island. Loving your photos and so pleased you managed a relaxing holiday x #MMWBH

Ahhh bless it looks absolutely amazing. Glad you had such a great babymoon as they call it these days. hahaha A trip before baby arrives! Or is that just after hahah I never keep up with the trends. You look amazing and I hope everything goes just how you want it. I can’t wait to be reading all about your lovely family addition soon! It’s gone so fast for me. lol Thanks for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme

That cottage looks absolutely gorgeous – and so homely as well It sounds like you had that well-deserved break before the newbie decides to make an appearance. All the best lovely and thank you for linking to PoCoLo x